Nintendo DSi: Defective by DESiGN.

In November, Nintendo released the DSi console in Japan. Next month,
the rest of the world will be hit by this console. Similar to the
previous Nintendo DS and DS Lite consoles, the DSi has two screens and
the ability to access WiFi networks. However, in an effort to heavily
control what gamers can do with their consoles, Nintendo has chosen to
encumber this new version with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).

By keeping it similar in style and backward-compatible with many, but
not all, Nintendo DS and DS Lite games, Nintendo is hoping the public
will ignore the restrictions in favor of some surface enhancements.

Support for the previous Game Boy Advance games has gone, and an SD
card slot has been added. On previous models, users were able to make
good use of the hardware for homebrew games and various free software
applications, such as ScummVM and the GNU/Linux OS via a third-party
adapter.

Nintendo has specifically blocked these adapters on the DSi, hoping to
woo the general public with music playback via the encumbered AAC
format, two low-resolution digital cameras and support for modern
wireless network security. All this ties nicely into their forthcoming
DRM-infected download service, DSiWare -- a sibling of the WiiWare and
Virtual Console services on the Wii, plus, for the first time on a
Nintendo handheld, region locking -- effectively locking out the
import market.

Oh, and if any of these restrictions are broken, Nintendo can update
your console's firmware via both new game cartridges and over the
air updates.

What Nintendo is doing with this move further distances itself from
the homebrew DRM-free development community. Just as it has done on
the Wii, Nintendo engages in a constant game of cat-and-mouse with the
developers, patching its badly written security subsystem with forced
patches and upgrades specifically designed to lock out legitimate
third-party development by people who are unable or unwilling to sign
Nintendo's onerous developer agreements and rent expensive development
systems.

All this adds up to making up and coming free/open consoles like
OpenPandora and the Fuzebox all the more attractive for game hackers
and hobbyist developers. By supporting systems that actively go
against the grain of locking users into proprietary development
platforms, we encourage the development of free software games.

How can you fight this? Not buying the Nintendo DSi would be one
way. By not buying it, we send a message to Nintendo and the game
companies that this is unacceptable. Namco Bandai is the first
third-party developer to support DSi -- contact them, and Nintendo
below.